Most Innovative Memory Product

  • One of the first categories to be created for the Insight Awards was the Most Innovative Memory Product category. Now in our 10th edition of the Insight Awards, memory technology has reached unparalleled heights of innovation. This award is given to the memory product (SSD, semiconductor or memory-based device) that is deemed to be the most innovative against its fellow nominees

    The five finalists in this category were evaluated by:

    • Memory density
    • Access speeds
    • Advanced packaging technology
    • Advanced process technology
    • Innovative design

    Our finalists feature two new entrants to the Insight Awards and two returning companies. These five products were chosen from over twelve nominations in a highly competitive field and were selected for the level of innovation they presented.

    Based upon that criteria, UBM TechInsights is proud to announce the winner as:

    Samsung’s K4B2G0846D 30nm-class 2GB DDR3 SDRAM

    Samsung’s use of a unique, modified 6F2 architecture to achieve a variation in the process technology of their latest DRAM set it apart from its competitors for this award. Though wordline half-pitch measurement would traditionally indicate that the process node of this DRAM would be 46nm, a closer look at the half-pitch of the shallow trench isolation (STI) resulted in a smaller cell size, revealing a significant reduction in the STI and a new milestone in DRAM process technology. Congratulations Samsung!


    The other four finalists for the Most Innovative Memory Product category are:

    Intel-Micron (IMFT) 20nm 8GB MLC NAND Flash

    Intel and Micron Technology jointly nominated their latest MLC NAND device as the first device manufactured at the 20nm process node. IMFT has proven themselves as a leader in the Flash manufacturing process, winning last year’s Insight Award for Most Innovative Memory Process Technology for their 25nm 64Gb (8GB) MLC NAND Flash..

    MoSys MSR576 Bandwidth Engine IC with 1T-SRAM

    MoSys receives their first Insight Awards finalist nomination for the MSR576 Bandwidth Engine IC with 1T-SRAM. This unique device is a high performance memory solution for next-gen networking applications built with MoSys’ proprietary 1T-SRAM memory core.

    Everspin MR4A16B Parallel MRAM

    Everspin receives their first Insight Awards finalist nomination with the MR4A16B Parallel MRAM device. Their industry-first 16Mb MRAM device features 35ns access times with unlimited read/write cycles. Developed under a more advanced lithography, the MR4A16B features a scaled down magnetic bit cell and a larger array all contained in a new package.

    Intel 710 Solid-State Drive

    For updating their X25-E Extreme SSD from using Single-Level Cell (SLC) NAND flash to their 25nm MLC NAND flash memory; Intel’s newest 710 series SSD is the only SSD nominated for this award.